Investment Manager Stanford Was Big-Time Campaign Contributor

Money manager Robert Allen Stanford now has two things in common with embattled investment manager Bernard Madoff: both have come under scrutiny for allegedly defrauding their investors, and both have given significant funds to politicians. The Securities and Exchange Commission today accused Stanford, chief of Stanford Financial Group, of “fraud in the sale of about $8 billion of high-yielding certificates of deposit held in the firm’s bank in Antigua,” according to the New York Times.

Between its PAC and its employees, Stanford Financial Group has given $2.4 million to federal candidates (including both candidate committees and leadership PACs), parties and committees since 2000, with 65 percent of that going to Democrats. Stanford and his wife, Susan, have given $931,100 out of their own pockets, with 78 percent going to Democrats. The top recipients of cash in the current Congress include Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), who received $45,900; Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas), who collected $41,375; and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who brought in $28,150. (For a full list of recipients in the 111th Congress, see below. For a full list of party committees and lawmakers, past and present, who have collected money from Stanford Financial Group, go here.)

The company gave the most during the 2002 election cycle, when Congress was debating the Financial Services Antifraud Network Act, a bill that would have created a computer network linking the databases of state and federal banking, securities and insurance regulators to curb financial fraud. Lobbying reports indicate that Stanford Financial Group lobbied on the bill, which the House passed but the Senate did not. Nelson was vice chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee during the ’02 cycle, when the DSCC collected more than $800,000 from the company. (UPDATE 2/18/09: A spokesman for Nelson pointed out to Capital Eye that Nelson was not a member of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, where the antifraud act appears to have stalled in 2001. Nelson’s spokesman said the senator supported the bill, which Stanford presumably opposed.)

Stanford Financial Group has spent a total of $4.8 million on lobbying efforts since 1999, primarily on issues related to money laundering, financial services and banking. Last year the firm’s lobbying spiked by more than 300 percent, totaling $2.2 million, by far the most it has ever reported spending. In addition to sending its own in-house lobbyists to Capitol Hill, the company also hired lobbying shop Ben Barnes Group last year to represent its interests.

These members of the 111th Congress have received contributions from the PAC and/or employees of the Stanford Financial Group since 2000 (includes contributions to both candidate committees and leadership PACs):

Name

Total

Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla)

$45,900

Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas)

$41,375

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz)*

$28,150

Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn)

$27,500

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas)

$19,700

Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-NY)

$17,000

Rep. Charlie A. Gonzalez (D-Texas)

$15,500

Rep. Gregory W. Meeks (D-NY)

$15,100

Rep. Pete Olson (R-Texas)*

$14,500

Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala)

$14,000

Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-NY)*

$11,800

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss)

$8,800

Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev)

$8,500

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas)

$7,300

Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI)

$7,000

Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY)

$6,900

Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah)

$6,100

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash)

$6,000

Del. Donna Christian-Green (D-VI)

$5,000

Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WVa)

$5,000

Rep. Donald M. Payne (D-NJ)

$5,000

Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio)

$5,000

Rep. Dan Maffei (D-NY)

$4,550

Rep. Michael Arcuri (D-NY)

$4,000

Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-ND)

$4,000

Rep. Richard E. Neal (D-Mass)

$4,000

Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD)

$3,500

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill)

$3,500

Rep. Kendrick B. Meek (D-Fla)

$3,500

Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va)

$3,000

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn)

$3,000

Rep. Melvin L. Watt (D-NC)

$3,000

Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-SC)

$3,000

Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY)

$2,550

Rep. Michael E. McMahon (D-NY)

$2,550

Rep. Vernon Buchanan (R-Fla)

$2,500

Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga)

$2,500

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va)

$2,500

Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla)

$2,500

Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss)

$2,500

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky)

$2,500

Rep. Stephen Ira Cohen (D-Tenn)

$2,500

Rep. John Tanner (D-Tenn)

$2,500

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine)

$2,500

Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski (D-Pa)

$2,500

Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich)

$2,500

Rep. Adam H. Putnam (R-Fla)

$2,500

Sen. Mary L. Landrieu (D-La)

$2,500

Rep. Walter Clifford Minnick (D-Idaho)

$2,300

Rep. John A. Boccieri (D-Ohio)

$2,300

Rep. Deborah Halvorson (D-Ill)

$2,300

Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-Texas)

$2,000

Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas)

$2,000

Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas)

$2,000

Rep. Patrick J. Tiberi (R-Ohio)

$2,000

Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala)

$2,000

Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas)

$2,000

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ)

$2,000

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla)

$2,000

Rep. Pete King (R-NY)

$1,500

Rep. Sam Johnson (R-Texas)

$1,500

Rep. Charles W. Boustany Jr (R-La)

$1,500

Rep. David Scott (D-Ga)

$1,500

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)

$1,500

Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del)

$1,000

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas)

$1,000

Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-La)

$1,000

Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WVa)

$1,000

Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Calif)

$1,000

Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan)

$1,000

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash)

$1,000

Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas)

$1,000

Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho)

$1,000

Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ)

$1,000

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass)

$1,000

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass)

$1,000

Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn)

$1,000

Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga)

$1,000

Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont)

$1,000

Sen. John Thune (R-SD)

$500

Rep. Ruben Hinojosa (D-Texas)

$500

Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla)

$500

Rep. Robert E Latta (R-Ohio)

$500

Sen. David Vitter (R-La)

$500

Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio)

$500

Rep. Gregg Harper (R-Miss)

$250

Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM)

$250

*Additional funds were raised by joint fundraising committees this politician controlled. Some of those funds were then distributed to other politicians, and are included, where applicable, in totals for other beneficiaries listed above.CRP Senior Researcher Douglas Weber contributed to this report

CRP In the NewsHere are some of the media citations of CRP’s data on Stanford Financial.

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